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+Network Working Group                                        J. C. Mogul
+Request for Comments: 2145                                           DEC
+Category: Informational                                      R. Fielding
+                                                               UC Irvine
+                                                               J. Gettys
+                                                                     DEC
+                                                              H. Frystyk
+                                                                 MIT/LCS
+                                                                May 1997
+
+                       Use and Interpretation of
+                          HTTP Version Numbers
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
+   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
+   this memo is unlimited.
+
+   Distribution of this document is unlimited.  Please send comments to
+   the HTTP working group at <[email protected]>.  Discussions
+   of the working group are archived at
+   <URL:http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/>.  General discussions
+   about HTTP and the applications which use HTTP should take place on
+   the <[email protected]> mailing list.
+
+Abstract
+
+   HTTP request and response messages include an HTTP protocol version
+   number.  Some confusion exists concerning the proper use and
+   interpretation of HTTP version numbers, and concerning
+   interoperability of HTTP implementations of different protocol
+   versions.  This document is an attempt to clarify the situation.  It
+   is not a modification of the intended meaning of the existing
+   HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1 documents, but it does describe the intention
+   of the authors of those documents, and can be considered definitive
+   when there is any ambiguity in those documents concerning HTTP
+   version numbers, for all versions of HTTP.
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+Mogul, et. al.               Informational                      [Page 1]
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+RFC 2145                  HTTP Version Numbers                  May 1997
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+   1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
+        1.1 Robustness Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
+   2 HTTP version numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
+   2.1 Proxy behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
+        2.2 Compatibility between minor versions of the same major
+            version. . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . .  4
+        2.3 Which version number to send in a message. . . . . . . .  5
+   3 Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
+   4 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
+   5 Authors' addresses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
+
+1 Introduction
+
+   HTTP request and response messages include an HTTP protocol version
+   number.  According to section 3.1 of the HTTP/1.1 specification [2],
+
+         HTTP uses a "<major>.<minor>" numbering scheme to indicate
+      versions of the protocol. The protocol versioning policy is
+      intended to allow the sender to indicate the format of a message
+      and its capacity for understanding further HTTP communication,
+      rather than the features obtained via that communication.  No
+      change is made to the version number for the addition of message
+      components which do not affect communication behavior or which
+      only add to extensible field values.  The <minor> number is
+      incremented when the changes made to the protocol add features
+      which do not change the general message parsing algorithm, but
+      which may add to the message semantics and imply additional
+      capabilities of the sender. The <major> number is incremented when
+      the format of a message within the protocol is changed.
+
+   The same language appears in the description of HTTP/1.0 [1].
+
+   Many readers of these documents have expressed some confusion about
+   the intended meaning of this policy.  Also, some people who wrote
+   HTTP implementations before RFC1945 [1] was issued were not aware of
+   the intentions behind the introduction of version numbers in
+   HTTP/1.0.  This has led to debate and inconsistency regarding the use
+   and interpretation of HTTP version numbers, and has led to
+   interoperability problems in certain cases.
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+Mogul, et. al.               Informational                      [Page 2]
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+RFC 2145                  HTTP Version Numbers                  May 1997
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+   This document is an attempt to clarify the situation.  It is not a
+   modification of the intended meaning of the existing HTTP/1.0 and
+   HTTP/1.1 documents, but it does describe the intention of the authors
+   of those documents.  In any case where either of those two documents
+   is ambiguous regarding the use and interpretation of HTTP version
+   numbers, this document should be considered the definitive as to the
+   intentions of the designers of HTTP.
+
+   The specification described in this document is not part of the
+   specification of any individual version of HTTP, such as HTTP/1.0 or
+   HTTP/1.1.  Rather, this document describes the use of HTTP version
+   numbers in any version of HTTP (except for HTTP/0.9, which did not
+   include version numbers).
+
+   No vendor or other provider of an HTTP implementation should claim
+   any compliance with any IETF HTTP specification unless the
+   implementation conditionally complies with the rules in this
+   document.
+
+1.1 Robustness Principle
+
+   RFC791 [4] defines the "robustness principle" in section 3.2:
+
+          an implementation must be conservative in its sending
+       behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior.
+
+   This principle applies to HTTP, as well.  It is the fundamental basis
+   for interpreting any part of the HTTP specification that might still
+   be ambiguous.  In particular, implementations of HTTP SHOULD NOT
+   reject messages or generate errors unnecessarily.
+
+2 HTTP version numbers
+
+   We start by restating the language quoted above from section 3.1 of
+   the HTTP/1.1 specification [2]:
+
+         It is, and has always been, the explicit intent of the
+      HTTP specification that the interpretation of an HTTP message
+      header does not change between minor versions of the same major
+      version.
+
+         It is, and has always been, the explicit intent of the
+      HTTP specification that an implementation receiving a message
+      header that it does not understand MUST ignore that header.  (The
+      word "ignore" has a special meaning for proxies; see section 2.1
+      below.)
+
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+Mogul, et. al.               Informational                      [Page 3]
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+RFC 2145                  HTTP Version Numbers                  May 1997
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+   To make this as clear as possible:  The major version sent in a
+   message MAY indicate the interpretation of other header fields.  The
+   minor version sent in a message MUST NOT indicate the interpretation
+   of other header fields.  This reflects the principle that the minor
+   version labels the capability of the sender, not the interpretation
+   of the message.
+
+      Note: In a future version of HTTP, we may introduce a mechanism
+      that explicitly requires a receiving implementation to reject a
+      message if it does not understand certain headers.  For example,
+      this might be implemented by means of a header that lists a set of
+      other message headers that must be understood by the recipient.
+      Any implementation claiming at least conditional compliance with
+      this future version of HTTP would have to implement this
+      mechanism.  However, no implementation claiming compliance with a
+      lower HTTP version (in particular, HTTP/1.1) will have to
+      implement this mechanism.
+
+      This future change may be required to support the Protocol
+      Extension Protocol (PEP) [3].
+
+   One consequence of these rules is that an HTTP/1.1 message sent to an
+   HTTP/1.0 recipient (or a recipient whose version is unknown) MUST be
+   constructed so that it remains a valid HTTP/1.0 message when all
+   headers not defined in the HTTP/1.0 specification [1] are removed.
+
+2.1 Proxy behavior
+
+   A proxy MUST forward an unknown header, unless it is protected by a
+   Connection header.  A proxy implementing an HTTP version >= 1.1 MUST
+   NOT forward unknown headers that are protected by a Connection
+   header, as described in section 14.10 of the HTTP/1.1 specification
+   [2].
+
+   We remind the reader that that HTTP version numbers are hop-by-hop
+   components of HTTP messages, and are not end-to-end.  That is, an
+   HTTP proxy never "forwards" an HTTP version number in either a
+   request or response.
+
+2.2 Compatibility between minor versions of the same major version
+
+   An implementation of HTTP/x.b sending a message to a recipient whose
+   version is known to be HTTP/x.a, a < b, MAY send a header that is not
+   defined in the specification for HTTP/x.a.  For example, an HTTP/1.1
+   server may send a "Cache-control" header to an HTTP/1.0 client; this
+   may be useful if the immediate recipient is an HTTP/1.0 proxy, but
+   the ultimate recipient is an HTTP/1.1 client.
+
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+Mogul, et. al.               Informational                      [Page 4]
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+RFC 2145                  HTTP Version Numbers                  May 1997
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+   An implementation of HTTP/x.b sending a message to a recipient whose
+   version is known to be HTTP/x.a, a < b, MUST NOT depend on the
+   recipient understanding a header not defined in the specification for
+   HTTP/x.a.  For example, HTTP/1.0 clients cannot be expected to
+   understand chunked encodings, and so an HTTP/1.1 server must never
+   send "Transfer-Encoding: chunked" in response to an HTTP/1.0 request.
+
+2.3 Which version number to send in a message
+
+   The most strenuous debate over the use of HTTP version numbers has
+   centered on the problem of implementations that do not follow the
+   robustness principle, and which fail to produce useful results when
+   they receive a message with an HTTP minor version higher than the
+   minor version they implement.  We consider these implementations
+   buggy, but we recognize that the robustness principle also implies
+   that message senders should make concessions to buggy implementations
+   when this is truly necessary for interoperation.
+
+   An HTTP client SHOULD send a request version equal to the highest
+   version for which the client is at least conditionally compliant, and
+   whose major version is no higher than the highest version supported
+   by the server, if this is known.  An HTTP client MUST NOT send a
+   version for which it is not at least conditionally compliant.
+
+   An HTTP client MAY send a lower request version, if it is known that
+   the server incorrectly implements the HTTP specification, but only
+   after the client has determined that the server is actually buggy.
+
+   An HTTP server SHOULD send a response version equal to the highest
+   version for which the server is at least conditionally compliant, and
+   whose major version is less than or equal to the one received in the
+   request.  An HTTP server MUST NOT send a version for which it is not
+   at least conditionally compliant.  A server MAY send a 505 (HTTP
+   Version Not Supported) response if cannot send a response using the
+   major version used in the client's request.
+
+   An HTTP server MAY send a lower response version, if it is known or
+   suspected that the client incorrectly implements the HTTP
+   specification, but this should not be the default, and this SHOULD
+   NOT be done if the request version is HTTP/1.1 or greater.
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+Mogul, et. al.               Informational                      [Page 5]
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+RFC 2145                  HTTP Version Numbers                  May 1997
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+3 Security Considerations
+
+   None, except to the extent that security mechanisms introduced in one
+   version of HTTP might depend on the proper interpretation of HTTP
+   version numbers in older implementations.
+
+4 References
+
+   1.  Berners-Lee, T.,  R. Fielding, and H. Frystyk.  Hypertext
+   Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0.  RFC 1945, HTTP Working Group, May,
+   1996.
+
+   2.  Fielding, Roy T., Jim Gettys, Jeffrey C. Mogul, Henrik Frystyk
+   Nielsen, and Tim Berners-Lee.  Hypertext Transfer Protocol --
+   HTTP/1.1.  RFC 2068, HTTP Working Group, January, 1997.
+
+   3.  Khare, Rohit.  HTTP/1.2 Extension Protocol (PEP).  HTTP Working
+   Group, Work in Progress.
+
+   4.  Postel, Jon.  Internet Protocol.  RFC 791, NIC, September, 1981.
+
+5 Authors' addresses
+
+   Jeffrey C. Mogul
+   Western Research Laboratory
+   Digital Equipment Corporation
+   250 University Avenue
+   Palo Alto, California, 94305, USA
+   Email: [email protected]
+
+   Roy T. Fielding
+   Department of Information and Computer Science
+   University of California
+   Irvine, CA 92717-3425, USA
+   Fax: +1 (714) 824-4056
+   Email: [email protected]
+
+   Jim Gettys
+   MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
+   545 Technology Square
+   Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
+   Fax: +1 (617) 258 8682
+   Email: [email protected]
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+RFC 2145                  HTTP Version Numbers                  May 1997
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+   Henrik Frystyk Nielsen
+   W3 Consortium
+   MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
+   545 Technology Square
+   Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
+   Fax: +1 (617) 258 8682
+   Email: [email protected]
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